Line #23 YMMV/ClassicDisneyShorts


1	* AccidentalInnuendo: "And remember, don't molest the bears.".
2	* AnimationAgeGhetto: ''WesternAnimation/TheSkeletonDance'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheMadDoctor'' were apparently so unusually scary for cartoons, some theater owners refused to show them, making this trope OlderThanTelevision.
3	* ArchivePanic: The original theatrical cartoons combined amount to 469 shorts total (not including shorts initially released as part of a bigger feature, such as the shorts in ''Film/TheReluctantDragon'', ''WesternAnimation/SaludosAmigos'', ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros'' and the '40s Disney package features) and that number shoots up to 562 if you include all of the silent Disney films (the Newman Laugh-O-Grams, the WesternAnimation/AliceComedies and WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit)[[note]] although only around 50 of the 93 silent Disney films survive, are available or are known to exist[[/note]] -- to watch all of them in chronological order would take around 66 hours and 30 minutes, or close to three days without sleep. And that's not counting post-Golden Age shorts, TV shows and feature animation appearances of the characters. And let's not even get started on the absolutely monstrous number of comics these characters have appeared in, ''especially'' the WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck comics.
4	%% * BaseBreakingCharacter:
5	%% ** Pluto also tends to be rather polarising due to over eclipsing Mickey in his own shorts.
6	* BizarroEpisode: Several:
7	** ''Toby Tortoise Returns'' is an oddball in the Silly Symphonies lineup-whereas most, if not all of those shorts were either sweet, sentimental and naturalistic, this short has much more in common with a Warner Bros. cartoon, complete with full cartoony, fast paced slapstick comedy.
8	** Ironically, the real [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Warner Bros. cartoons]] being made around the same time were intent on trying to ape the sweeter, sentimental elements of the Silly Symphonies. We won't see a WB cartoon as fast-paced as "Toby Tortoise Returns" until "WesternAnimation/DaffyDuckAndEgghead" and "WesternAnimation/PorkyInWackyland"
9	** Mickey Mouse's "WesternAnimation/RunawayBrain" from the 90's, which was the first ([[Franchise/KingdomHearts but certainly not]] [[VideoGame/EpicMickey the last]]) attempt at returning Mickey to his adventurous, edgier roots. Whether it succeeded or not is up for debate.
10	** The later Donald Duck shorts from the '50s show how desperate the writers were to come up with new ideas -- one short has Donald become so obsessed with obtaining honey that he dresses up as a bee to steal honey from an [[TooDumbToLive actual hive]], instead of just going to the store and buying some honey in a jar like any sane [[strike:man]] duck would do.
11	** There's also the Silly Symphonies short "Mother Goose Goes Hollywood", which is yet another pure comedy Disney short, featuring caricatures of Golden Age Hollywood celebrities in the roles of classic fairy tale characters. The opening logo is even a parody of the MGM Lion-except with a goose (albeit one that roars like a lion)!
12	* DesignatedHero:
13	** Chip and Dale are shown to be protagonists and {{Karmic Trickster}}s whenever confronted against Donald or Pluto, but most of the time, they are harassing and tormenting them when they did nothing wrong to them to begin with.
14	** Huey, Dewey, and Louie are no better themselves, while they do get back at Donald for his mistreatment towards them, they also torment and heckle him unprovoked and they're usually in the right for doing so.
15	** The orphans are shown to be angels when they appear in the cartoons, but they usually go out of their way to antagonize Donald for no better reason [[ItAmusedMe than for their own amusement]].
16	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
17	** WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck was originally just a {{Jerkass}} one-shot character in "The Wise Little Hen". He's since become Disney's most recognizable character, to the point where he eclipsed WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse in popularity by the early 1940s.
18	** Clarice from ''WesternAnimation/TwoChipsAndAMiss''. She was in one cartoon and now she's a meetable character in the Ride/DisneyThemeParks. She's also pretty popular in Japan along with Chip and Dale themselves.
19	** WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit, who was Disney's biggest star before Mickey, has gained quite a revival at least since 2008, to the point where the 2023 short ''WesternAnimation/OnceUponAStudio'' has Mickey step aside during the big group photo, allowing his older half-brother Oswald take center stage.
20	* FandomRivalry: Between this series and fans of ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'', but it often Zigzags between this and FriendlyFandoms.
21	* HarsherInHindsight:
22	** Most of the gags in Goofy's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMdTBep3W9c Teachers Are People]]" short, since it involves a kid turning in a handgun and grenade, threatening a classmate with a (water) pistol, and ''blowing up the school''. It gets to the point where Leonard Maltin, in the ''Walt Disney Treasures'' collection of Goofy cartoons, has to remind viewers that "Teachers Are People" was made during a time when people thought of the ''idea'' of school violence as absurd.
23	** ''No Smoking'' becomes this due to Walt Disney's death from lung cancer, especially the gag where a skywriter spells out "Smoke Lookys" (Lucky Strike was Walt's preferred brand). On the plus side, five years before Walt's death, one TV edit of the cartoon had a new ending where Goofy really does give up smoking.
24	** Ajax the KillerGorilla can come off as this to modern viewers, after Harambe the gorilla was put down in May 2016 when he poised a threat to a boy who fell in his enclosure. The end of the short also features Donald and Ajax weeping hysterically and dramatically, similar to the unprecedented maelstrom of memes mourning the dead ape for the rest of 2016.
25	** The 1936 cartoon ''Moving Day'' includes a house getting blown up by a gas leak. Two years later, Walt Disney's own mother Flora asphyxiated to death as a result of a gas leak in a house that her son had bought for her.
26	** In ''Mickey's Amateurs'', Donald Duck reenters the theater disguised as a full-brush peddler before pulling out a submachine gun, holding Mickey and the audience members at gunpoint, and demanding that he finish his recitation of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"; when that fails, he fires a bunch of gunshots at them before the mechanical hands place him in a violin case and remove him from the stage, but not before he futilely shoots at Mickey, who shields himself with a reflective gong (thankfully no one gets hurt). Suddenly this scene is kinda reminiscent to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Aurora,_Colorado_shooting 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting in Colorado]] and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataclan_(theatre) the 2015 Bataclan theater shooting in Paris]].
27	* HypeBacklash: The shorts and characters are beloved and popular, but their exposure and esteemed reputation have made many see them as rather quaint and juvenile in contrast to other cartoon series like WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes.
28	* MagnificentBastard: ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle'' (1943): [[FoulFox Foxy Loxy]] desires to eat all of the birds from a nearby farmhouse. Prevented from getting in by force, he turns to a psychology book to manipulate the foolish Chicken Little into thinking [[MistakenForApocalypse the sky is falling]]. When his plan is foiled by Cocky Locky, the birds' leader, Foxy uses disguises and rumors to make the others think he's unfit to lead, then encourages Chicken Little to declare himself leader. Foxy uses another piece of "sky" to discredit Cocky Locky and tricks Chicken Little into luring the birds to his cave, where [[TheBadGuyWins he successfully eats them all]]. Foxy Loxy stands out as one of the shrewdest Disney villains in this cautionary tale of hysteria.
29	%%* MemeticMutation:
30	%%** [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dolan DOLAN]].
31	%%** [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/its-goofy-time It's Goofy Time!]]
32	* OlderThanTheyThink:
33	** {{WesternAnimation/Pete}} predates Mickey by three years.
34	** The character, Mortimer Mouse (or a very similar version thereof) initially appeared in ''Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers'', a very early storyline from the ''Mickey Mouse'' comic strip. The name is older still; it was ''[[ContinuityNod almost]]'' the name given to the character [[WhatCouldHaveBeen that was instead named Mickey]].
35	** Max Goof first appeared in "Fathers are People" as Goofy Jr. Likewise, P.J. first appeared in "Bellboy Donald".
36	** Humphrey and Woodlore predate [[WesternAnimation/YogiBear a more famous bear/ranger team]] by eight years.
37	* PopularWithFurries: All of the Sensational Six. It also helps that several have spinoff universes which are ''also'' popular with furries (such as the Creator/FloydGottfredson ''Mouse'' comics, the Creator/CarlBarks ''Duck'' comics, the ''Goof Troop''-verse, and the ''Ducktales'' cartoon).
38	* ShipToShipCombat: Who is the better love interest for Clarabelle: Horace or Goofy?
39	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The Armadillo from ''WesternAnimation/PlutoAndTheArmadillo'' could've made for an interesting addition to other Pluto shorts, considering the amount of ShipTease it and Pluto have and how it ends up tagging along with Pluto and Mickey on the plane at the end. Alas, she doesn't show up in any other cartoon.
40	* VanillaProtagonist: There's a startlingly low amount of shorts focused on Mickey in the '40s and '50s, even those categorized as his cartoon, his more laid back EveryMan persona making him rather dull compared to more proactive co-stars such as Donald or Pluto.
41	* ValuesDissonance: Minnie beats Figaro with a broom and kicks him out at one point in "Figaro and Frankie" (mistakenly assuming he ate the bird). Even when she realizes Frankie didn't actually die, she never apologizes to the cat. Normally, this stuff would be considered slapstick, but this short in particular was more serious. The aforementioned scene has not aged well, as it is clear that Minnie Mouse has committed an act of animal abuse.
42	* ValuesResonance: ''Motor Mania''. This is due the fact there are still many drivers who tend let their emotions and ego override the wellbeing of the other people on the road.
43	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: Subverted. Most of Disney shorts were made for all audiences, so these shorts are safe for kids. Then there are propaganda shorts like "WesternAnimation/DerFuehrersFace" and "WesternAnimation/EducationForDeath" and rather nightmarish cartoons like "WesternAnimation/TheMadDoctor" and "WesternAnimation/PlutosJudgementDay". Any kids watching those will become either terrified or totally confused.

Context YMMV / ClassicDisneyShorts